Monday Book Nook: Celebrating Your First Period

This is an animated short about a girl’s first period from my friend Lara Owen who is running the Waratah Project for the Dugdale Trust for Women and Girls at a women’s advocacy center in Australia. Lara is the author of “Her Blood is Gold” (later published under “Honoring Menstruation”). She is a Doctor of Chinese Medicine, and has traveled the world over speaking with indigenous people about women’s periods, collecting traditions that approach a woman’s period from a place of honor, celebration, and spiritual power – contrary to the Western view that seeks to hide and excuse it. In addition to accepting and loving our bodies and many other obvious positives to a celebratory approach, there are also many statistics that point to these cultures having more balanced relationships between men and women and lower rates of domestic abuse. From my end, I believe that morality begins with the body – it is the body that recoils or approaches, that flinches or embraces. Thus, to honor ourselves, and all that we are capable of from within this incredible vessel, is to create a non-negotiable space of respect: respect for self and the other. In short, I believe Lara’s work is not only life changing on an individual level, but also culture and world changing.

Here are some important links if this interests you:

Facebook page for the Waratah Project
Lara’s project The Dugdale Trust for Women and Girls
The Center
Lara’s book: Her Blood Is Gold: Celebrating the Power of Menstruation / Honoring Menstruation: A Time of Self-Renewal